2,368 Dollars
by Tigergirl1223
Summary: A little moment between Claire and Shaun during the charity gala in 1x15 'Heartfelt'. For all of you fellow Shaire shippers out there!


"Goodbye Claire," Jared whispered in her ear.

Dr. Jared Kalu walked away, leaving Dr. Claire Browne alone in the middle of the dance floor. He was the one who had wanted to come to this gala as a couple and he had the nerve to just dump her in the middle of the dance floor like that, all over the fact that she couldn't remember the song that had play during their first kiss? Seriously, she had established from the beginning of their relationship that it was strictly casual, that it was never going to lead to something serious. But clearly, Jared had had other ideas. Clearly he had had a secret plan to make Claire fall for him eventually. Claire finally composed herself and took a deep breath, figuring she shouldn't stay on the floor making an ass of herself since she no longer had a dance partner.

Claire slowly took a walk around the room, taking in every little detail around her. The room was filled with doctors from various departments and of differing ranks, a few lawyers, chair people, mainly rich old people who were the key donors of St. Bonaventure. Her eyes first landed on Dr. Morgan Reznick and Claire quickly averted her eyes from the blonde resident. She didn't want to talk to that bitch for any reason tonight as Morgan had already established that Claire was her competition and that she wasn't intending on being her friend. Claire found herself looking at the bar and first, she saw that new resident, the ex-cop. Dr. Park, she thought was his name. A little ways down were Dr. Glassman and Jessica, both looking over to the same table. At that table, Dr. Lim and Dr. Melendez were both laughing, drinking, and clearly enjoying each other's company. Claire scowled a little. Not more than two weeks ago, Dr. Melendez had been engaged to Jessica. Sure, there had been a lot of discord in that relationship, Claire could always see it, but seriously how DID men move on so fast? Melendez had claimed to be so in love with Jessica and now he was being Dr. McFlirty Pants to Lim, who was obviously eating up every minute of it. She shook her head, but sighed and moved on; it wasn't her problem anyways.

Allegra was with an important looking physician and Andrews was chatting with a group of donors. Claire looked over towards the entrance and then she saw him. He was walking around the room, obviously uncomfortable and contemplating leaving. Claire had always had a special connection with Shaun since their first day as residents. And it looked as if Shaun needed a friend right now (not to mention, he looked incredibly handsome in that tuxedo), so she slowly walked over to Shaun and smiled warmly, "Wow Shaun, you look incredible."

Shaun stiffly looked around the room and commented, "Jessica said I look like a million bucks but the tuxedo actually cost $2,368."

Claire scowled, "I thought you were going to rent one?"

"I was, but Dr. Reznick told me that I should buy one if I wanted to impress people."

_"__Of course she did,"_ thought Claire. Morgan was already acting like she knew what was best for Shaun even though they hadn't even known each other a month. Claire couldn't help but feel a sense of protectiveness towards her colleague and friend. Where was it Morgan's right to waltz in and tell Shaun what to do when she had fully admitted she didn't respect Shaun (even Dr. Lim had called Morgan out on that)? Honestly, unless Dr. Melendez or Dr. Lim was reprimanding him (which it was their right as they were their supervisors), she somehow had always felt it was her responsibility to stand up for Shaun because that was just the type of person she was. It had nothing to do with his cute dimples on the rare occasions he smiled. It had nothing to do with his compliment to her about how she knew how to talk to autistic people. It had nothing to do with the fact that her heart would skip a beat and she would have butterflies in her stomach every time he trusted her enough to look her in the eyes. It was because they were friends.

Claire finally realized she hadn't spoken for a good two minutes, so she finally asked Shaun, "Um, did you want to dance or something."

Shaun took a deep breath, "No, I don't dance."

"Okay, then what do you want to do?" asked Claire curiously.

Shaun stayed silent for a little while longer before he said, "Just standing here with my friend is fine with me." Shaun didn't notice, but Claire couldn't help but broadly grin from ear to ear.


End file.
